Below is a recap of this week’s legislative activity. There were no
committee meetings and only a handful of Senate votes, so it’s somewhat light.

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In this Issue...

Senate Approves Oil and Gas Lease Protection Bills

The Senate gave final approval Wednesday to two bills intended to protect and
expand the rights of landowners who currently hold leases with natural gas
companies.

Senate Bill 147 would expand the Oil and Gas Lease Act by allowing royalty
interest owners the opportunity to inspect records of natural gas companies to
verify proper payments. The bill also requires all royalty payments to be made
within 90 days of production unless otherwise stated in the contract.

Senate Bill 148 would prohibit a gas company from retaliating against a
royalty interest owner by terminating the lease agreement or ceasing development
because a landowner questions the accuracy of the royalty payments.

The Senate also approved
Senate Bill 283 which continues the process to amend the state Constitution
to eliminate the Philadelphia Traffic Court.

All three bills now go to the House of Representatives for consideration.

Mensch Discusses Legislative Priorities on Comcast
Newsmakers

Those priorities include enacting pension reform and passing a responsible
state budget. You can watch this brief (4:40) interview
here.

Next Week

The Senate returns to session on Monday at 1 p.m. You can watch session
live at
PASenateGOP.com.

Twitter and Facebook: I post regular
updates on legislative action, committee developments, useful state-related
information, happenings in the 24th Senatorial District and more on Twitter
@SenatorMensch and on my
Facebook page.

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